One month into the future, and I love my iPad more and more every day. I use it constantly, for…
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It's cheap to make, but it doesn't look cheap. It's easy to assemble, but challenging to perfect. It's utilitarian, but it also serves as a metaphor for the plight of the pencil in the digital age, if you're into that sort of thing. It can stand your iPad up in portrait or landscape orientation, and you can probably make it entirely from stuff in your office's supply closet.

Most of all, it's just plain clever, but it could be made even cleverer.

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GeekyGadgets are the engineers behind the pencil iPad stand, and they've done a fine job, to be sure. But Wired thinks the design could be streamlined even further. I agree.

So here's the challenge: do better. Use less pencils. Add space for a dock connector in portrait mode. Make it look nicer. Whatever! It's like those fun Odyssey of the Mind challenges where you had to keep an egg from breaking with some straws and a bunch of paperclips. Just go into your office's supply closet and go nuts. I'll be giving it my best shot tonight. Do the same and post your results in the comments; I'll add the best of the bunch to this post. [Geeky Gadgets via Wired]